[Stefan]

Mineral Butte (Monte Cristo Quad) If you haven't done Mineral Butte as a winter trip, then put it on your list of ones to do during the winter. Matt G, Paul K., and my original plan for the day was to do a traverse of Hawk Rock and Eagle Rock--but we were stymied by a gate at Eagle Creek on FS road 6510 which the Mt. Baker Snoq webpage does NOT indicate. So we made an alternative plan to climb Mineral Butte. Fantastic! I really enjoyed this trip becuase of it's TOTAL lack of bushwacking. Take FS road 6330 about 10 miles past Index and take the road as high as you can drive. Watch out, this road does not take kindly to Honda Civics! I said enough on driving over the berms and we started walking around 1800 feet. We walked the road and eventually put on snowshoes taking the eventually abandoned road to around 3500 feet. From here we went through old growth and on to the summit. There is absolutely no bushwacking! Recent snows made the snowshoes sink about a foot near the summit, but nowhere near the depth that I thought we would sink. We did not stay long on the summit becuase a cold breezy wind occupied the summit, however, the views were fantastic of the surrounding mountains! I highly recommend this as an outing during the winter. Stefan 2/23/2003

[cookiejar]

Thanks for the report! We got about a half mile up the road last winter when my partners decided they didn't want to do a "rainshoe" trip. I wasn't sure if Mineral Butte was worth another winter attempt, but your report has strengthened my resolve.